News update for Tue 1 April 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
32 days until the May 3 federal election
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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: Reserve Bank holds rates steady, cautious about the economic outlook - The Conversation
Five questions Peter Dutton needs to answer about his energy plans - The Guardian
Coalition leader is touting a ‘gas reserve’ to ease prices on the east coast, while dodging questions on key elements of nuclear power policy.
Peter Dutton swerved questions on Monday over the Coalition’s nuclear electricity modelling and what his energy plans could mean for energy-intensive industries and how it could bring down household electricity bills.
Dutton rejected advice from the federal energy department that Liberal-commissioned modelling may have vastly underestimated the costs and likely complications of setting up a nuclear power industry in Australia, dismissing energy minister Chris Bowen’s claims as “partisan”.
Also >
Under a Coalition government, the fate of Australia’s central climate policy hangs in the balance - The Conversation
Hosting the UN climate summit is far from ‘madness’ – here’s how Australia stands to benefit - The Conversation
Election Watch: Energy flattery and Coalition’s blackout panic button - Renew Economy
Amy Remeikis on what the election should be about - 7am Podcast
As the federal election campaign kicked off over the weekend, chief political analyst at the Australia Institute Amy Remeikis was paying close attention. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a crackdown on supermarket price gouging and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton focused on cost-of-living measures, Remeikis noticed there were some big issues that neither leader wanted to confront – such as climate change and Australia’s relationship with our most important ally. Today, chief political analyst at the Australia Institute Amy Remeikis on the big questions we should be asking our politicians – and why now is the time to do so.
Keep an eye on the Senate – the people elected to it this year will have immense power for years to come - The Conversation
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally ended weeks of speculation and named the election date for the national parliament.
Much of the campaigning by the parties will be focused on the House of Representatives. This is to be expected as the lower house is where government is formed by the party that wins the majority of seats in this chamber, and the leader of this party becomes prime minister.
While the election for the lower house dominates the campaign, the contest for the Senate is rarely mentioned.
This is a bit unfair as the Senate is an immensely powerful chamber.
Voters left in the dark on 'big Australia' immigration policy - Independent Australia
A few weeks out from the Federal Election, both major parties are focused on immigration but voters remain in the dark on details.
IN HIS PAST TWO budget reply speeches, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has highlighted his desire to reduce immigration. He is determined to make immigration an issue for the forthcoming election while providing few details on what he would actually do and what legal powers he would need to acquire.
Both major parties are guilty of not providing key details on their respective immigration plans. That makes it hard for Australians to decide who to believe.
Read more from Abul Rizvi for Independent Australia
Finally, an election where Murdoch doesn’t matter — and it’s News Corp’s own fault - Crikey
After decades of media moguls acting as political kingmakers, we finally have an election where the Murdoch family just won’t have much of a say.
This election is going to be different. For the first time in almost a century, it looks like the Murdochs just don’t matter — in shaping how people vote, at least.
The power they once wielded to shape public opinion, and to inspire fear in political leaders, through the combined bludgeon of their tabloids and the sharp sabre thrusts of their upmarket broadsheets, has evaporated in the age of fragmented media.
Read more in Crikey (paywall)
Jack Waterford: Will things fall apart? Can the centre hold? - Pearls and Irritations
Community independents, including Teals, are expected to do well at the May election. Their capacity to widen the space in the middle ground of politics is a measure of both Labor and Coalition ineptitude.
First, the Coalition saw serious damage to right-of-centre politics by abandoning its moderate wings, and middle -of -the-road policies. Worse, conservative Coalition strategists decided they were well rid of half-hearted supporters constantly trying to water down “tough” policies.
Read more from Jack Waterford for Pearls and Irritations
Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Secret AUKUS nuclear waste site docs in Cabinet lockdown - Michael West Media
The Federal Government has successfully managed to bury, for twenty years, a report into how high-level AUKUS nuclear waste will be stored, and where. Transparency warrior.
The circumstances of this case are extraordinary, as is the outcome. A report of very high public interest has effectively been hidden from view by the bureaucracy’s misrepresentation of the report’s nature and origin.
In early 2023, the Cabinet made some sort of direction for the Department of Defence to look into AUKUS’ high-level nuclear waste storage.
Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Independents and minor parties may decide who runs Australia. Who and what will win their support? - The Guardian
The polls suggest no party is likely to have a majority after the federal election on 3 May. We asked the current crossbenchers what their priorities would be in that event.
Polling trends show there is every chance no party will have an outright majority in the next parliament, giving independents and minor parties the opportunity to negotiate with a minority government for their support.
There were 13 independents in the outgoing parliament, plus Rebekha Sharkie of the Centre Alliance and Bob Katter of Katter’s Australian party. That number includes three Coalition MPs who left either the Liberal or National party during the parliament to sit as independents. One independent – Kylea Tink – is not standing at this election since her seat of North Sydney was abolished.
Swarms of satellites are harming astronomy. Here’s how researchers are fighting back - Nature
SpaceX and other companies plan to launch tens of thousands of satellites, which could mar astronomical observations and pollute the atmosphere.
The number of working satellites has soared in the past five years to around 11,000, mostly because of constellations of orbiters that provide Internet connectivity around the globe (see ‘Satellite surge’). Just one company, SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, has more than 7,000 operational Starlink satellites, all launched since 2019; OneWeb, a space communications company in London, has more than 630 satellites in its constellation. On paper, tens to hundreds of thousands more are planned from a variety of companies and nations, although probably not all of these will be launched1.
How Dutton’s Paladin Scandal Makes Him Unsuitable for PM - AIMN
Peter Dutton’s Paladin scandal raises serious concerns about his leadership. Can Australia trust him as PM? Explore the facts.
Imagine you are an asylum seeker fleeing danger, hoping for refuge. Instead, you end up in a detention centre managed by a company with a shady history, awarded government contracts without proper transparency. This is the story of Paladin, a security firm at the heart of a multimillion-dollar controversy that directly implicates Peter Dutton’s leadership.
Australia’s current Leader of the Opposition and former Home Affairs Minister, Dutton, has long been a divisive figure. His leadership raises fundamental questions about governance, transparency, and ethics. As the next federal election looms, Australians must ask: Is Peter Dutton fit to be Prime Minister?
Richard Denniss: Major/minor - The Monthly
With a minority government more than likely, why are the major parties abandoning the issues that voters care about?
In 2022, Anthony Albanese swept into majority government despite a swing away from Labor of 0.8 per cent compared to Bill Shorten’s primary vote in 2019. Luckily for Albanese, Scott Morrison had driven away 5.7 per cent of Liberal voters. And as any political strategist will tell you, a messy win is better than a clean loss.
But three years later the steadily shrinking major parties seem more focused on changing electoral laws than reflecting on why a growing portion of voters clearly prefer minor parties and independents. The result of their lack of curiosity will most likely be a minority government after the imminent federal election.
Read more from Richard Denniss for The Monthly
Also > Fact-check: Coalition misleads with claim Albo is ready to do a deal with the Greens - Crikey (paywall)
God help us if Dutton’s hip-pocket wedge works - The Politics
... because his devious 'Are you better off than three years ago?' line is a stark reminder of just how dreadful ScoMo's 'Christianity' demoralised Australia.
Are you better off now than you were three years ago?
Peter Dutton will ask this again and again in this campaign. It’s one of the oldest ploys in the book: a simple invitation which asks only that you measure your satisfaction with the government by how much disposable income you have now compared with 2022. Voila! The answer is that you probably are worse off, according to economist Saul Eslake, who has looked at the measure of real net disposable income per capita. So Vote 1 Dutton.
Read more from David Hardaker for The Politics
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Quick Links…
'Labor must keep a close eye on this trend': inside the politics of younger voters - The ABC
Trump cutting Vaccine Alliance funds could kill 1.2m children worldwide - Pearls and Irritations
Marine Le Pen’s victim narrative is already being constructed – but there are ways to stop her criminal conviction benefitting her - The Conversation
Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous - Timothy Snyder for The Guardian
Will Kyle & Jackie O be taken off the air? - The Daily Aus
Laura Tingle's election plus defining antisemitism - Late Night Live podcast
Are accusations Australian supermarkets are price-gouging inflated? - The Guardian
As Australia votes, don’t lose sight of the Trump Administration’s assaults on health - Croakey Health Media
More than 100,000 head of livestock estimated lost during flooding in outback Queensland - ABC News
Is DEI really about justice or just what’s comfortable? - Pearls and Irritations
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
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You’re up to date for Tuesday the 1st of April. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
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